Corporation Bank, the oldest banking institution in the erstwhile undivided Dakshina Kannada(Mangalore) District of Karnataka and one of the oldest banks in India, was founded in 12th March 1906 in the Temple Town of Udupi, by a small group of philanthropists led by Khan Bahadur Haji Abdulla Haji Kasim Saheb Bahadur. The need to start this bank was felt because there was no such facility at Udupi, an important trading centre next to Mangalore in D.K. District. The indigenous banking was largely in the hands of a few rich private individuals and something had to be done to provide relief to the common man from the clutches of the money lenders who held full sway. The first branch of a modern bank established in the district was the Bank of Madras, one of the three Presidency Banks, which set up its office in Mangalore in 1868 largely to cater to the business needs of a few British firms dealing in export of plantation products. Its agent used to visit Udupi once a fortnight or so, to do banking. Money remittances had to be made only through postal medium.